A Day to Prevent Exploitation of the Environment in War

"The natural environment enjoys protection under Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions," Ban said. "But this protection is often violated during war and armed conflict. Water wells are polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed, all in order to gain military advantage."

The secretary-general's message on the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, which is observed each year on November 6, was issued as he was in the air on his way to Nairobi, Kenya, to attend a UN-backed high-level summit tomorrow aimed at ending an armed conflict that is destroying the environment.

The crisis was brought on by renewed fighting this week in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fighting broke out two days ago in the Rutshuru area between the National Congress in Defence of the People, a militia led by former general Laurent Nkunda, and a mixed group of Coalition of Patriots in the Congolese Resistance/Mayi-Mayi militia.

In an effort to end the fighting, Ban is scheduled to meet with DRC President Joseph Kabila and with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, which borders North Kivu.

The leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Africa are also slated to attend the summit, which is being hosted by the African Union.

At the empty Nyongera site for internally displaced people, the environment is destroyed and the people have fled. (Photo by A. Murru courtesy UNHCR)

The latest broad wave of violence has displaced as many as 250,000 Congolese in the far east of the impoverished country.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a vast area of about 10,000 square kilometres, stretching from the western edge of Garamba National Park to the border with Sudan, has now been depopulated because of recent attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army.

Three different sites for internally displaced people in the Rutshuru District have been destroyed this week. The UN High Commission for Refugees and its partners are now looking for the thousands of people that have fled to the north and east.

Since the outbreak of fighting in August 1998, the conflicts have been rooted in struggles for control of natural resources such as water, timber, diamonds and other minerals as well as various political agendas.

"The United Nations attaches great importance to ensuring that action on the environment is part of our approach to peace," Ban stressed today. "Protecting the environment can help countries create employment opportunities, promote development and avoid a relapse into armed conflict.

Ban said that the UN is studying the environmental impacts of conflicts around the world, from the Balkans to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to the Sudan.

Lasting peace in war-torn Darfur will depend in part on resolving the underlying competition for water and fertile land, Ban said, adding that there can be no durable peace in Afghanistan if the natural resources that sustain livelihoods and ecosystems are destroyed.

"We have seen how environmental damage and the collapse of institutions are threatening human health, livelihoods and security," he said. "These risks can also jeopardize fragile peace and development in post-conflict societies."

"Let us renew our commitment to preventing the exploitation of the environment in times of conflict," said the secretary-general, "and to protecting the environment as a pillar of our work for peace."

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